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67th Congress"! SENATE ("Document 

1st Session J \ No. 78 



Sly^ Mttknouin American #0lbt^r 



ADDRESS 

OF THE 

President of the United States 

AT THE 

CEREMONIES ATTENDING THE BURIAL 

OF AN UNKNOWN AMERICAN SOLDIER 

IN ARLINGTON CEMETERY 

NOVEMBER 11, 1921 




PRESENTED BY MR. LODGE 

November 14, 1921.— Ordered to be printed 



WASHINGTON 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 

1921 




LIBf^ARY OF CONQRI88 

RECEIVKD 
DOCUMENTS UIVI3I0N 

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^bbrcsg at tlje ?lurial of an ®nfenoU)n 
American ^olbier 



Mr. Secretary of War and Ladies and Gentlemen : We are met 
to-day to pay the impersonal tribute. The name of him whose body 
lies before us took flight with his imperishable soul. We know not 
whence he came, but only that his death marks him with the everlast- 
ing glory of an American dying for his country. 

He might have come from any one of millions of American homes. 
Some mother gave him in her love and tenderness, and with him her 
most cherished hopes. Hundreds of mothers are wondering to-day, 
finding a touch of solace in the possibility that the Nation bows in 
grief over the body of one she bore to live and die, if need be, for the 
Republic. If we give rein to fancy, a score of sympathetic chords 
are touched, for in this body there once glowed the soul of an Ameri- 
can, with the aspirations and ambitions of a citizen who cherished life 
and its opportunities. He may have been a native or an adopted son ; 
that matters little, because they glorified the same loyalty, they 
sacrificed alike. 

We do not know his station in life, because from every station came 
the patriotic response of the five millions. I recall the days of cre- 
ating armies, and the departing of caravels which braved the murder- 
ous seas to reach the battle lines for maintained nationality and pre- 
served civilization. The service flag marked mansion and cottage 
alike, and riches were common to all homes in the consciousness of 
service to country. 

We do not know the eminence of his birth, but we do know the 
glory of his death. He died for his country, and greater devotion 
hath no man than this. He died unquestioning, uncomplaining, with 
faith in his heart and hope on his lips, that his country should tri- 
umph and its civilization survive. As a typical soldier of this rep- 
resentative democracy, he fought and died, believing in the indis- 
putable justice of his country's cause. Conscious of the world's 
upheaval, appraising the magnitude of a war the like of which had 
never horrified humanity before, perhaps he believed his to be a 
service destined to change the tide of human affairs. 

S. Doc. 78,67-1 (3) 



In the death gloom of gas, the bursting of shells and rain of 
bullets, men face more intimately the great God over all, their souls 
are aflame, and consciousness expands and hearts are searched. With 
the din of battle, the glow of conflict, and the supreme trial of 
courage, come involuntarily the hurried appraisal of life and the 
contemplation of death's great mystery. On the threshhold of 
eternity, many a soldier, I can well believe, wondered how his ebbing 
blood would color the stream of human life, flowing on after his 
sacrifice. His patriotism was none less if he craved more than 
triumph of country ; rather, it was greater if he hoped for a victory 
for all human kind. Indeed, I revere that citizen whose confidence 
in the righteousness of his country inspired belief that its triumph 
is the victory of humanit}-. 

This American soldier w^ent forth to battle with no hatred for 
any people in the world, but hating war and hating the purpose of 
every war for conquest. He cherished our national rights, and ab- 
horred the threat of armed domination; and in the maelstrom of 
destruction and suffering and death he fired his shot for liberation 
of the captive conscience of the world. In advancing toward his 
objective was somewhere a thought of a world awakened ; and we 
are here to testify undying gratitude and reverence for that thought 
of a wider freedom. 

On such an occasion as this, amid such a scene, our thoughts 
alternate between defenders living and defenders dead. A grate- 
ful Eepublic will be worthy of them both. Our part is to atone 
for the losses of heroic dead by making a better Republic for the 
living. 

Sleeping in these hallowed grounds are thousands of Americans 
who have given their blood for the baptism of freedom and its 
maintenance, armed exponents of the Nation's conscience. It is 
better and nobler for their deeds. Burial here is rather more than 
a sign of the Government's favor, it is a suggestion of a tomb in 
the heart of the Nation, sorrowing for its noble dead. 

To-day's ceremonies proclaim that the hero unknown is not 
unhonored. We gather him to the Nation's breast, within the 
shadow of the Capitol, of the towering shaft that honors Wash- 
ington, the great father, and of the exquisite monument to Lincoln, 
the martyred savior. Here the inspirations of yesterday and^ the 
conscience of to-day forever unite to make the Eepublic worthy 
of his death for flag and country. 

Ours are lofty resolutions to-day, as with tribute to the dead we 
consecrate ourselves to a better order for the living. With all my 
heart, I wish we might say to the defenders who survive, to mothers 
who sorrow, to widows and children who mourn, that no such sacri- 
fice shall be asked again. 



It was my fortune recently to see a demonstration of modern war- 
fare. It is no longer a conflict in chivalry, no more a test of militant 
manhood. It is only cruel, deliberate, scientific destruction. There 
was no contending enemy, only the theoretical defense of a hypothetic 
objective. But the attack was made with all the relentless methods 
of modern destruction. There was the rain of ruin from the air- 
craft, the thunder of artillery, followed by the unspeakable devasta- 
tion wrought by bursting shells; there were mortars belching their 
bombs of desolation ; machine guns concentrating their leaden storms ; 
there was the infantry, advancing, firing, and falling — like men with 
souls sacrificing for the decision. The flying missiles were revealed 
by illuminating tracers, so that we could note their flight and ap- 
praise their deadliness. The air was streaked with tin}?^ flames mark- 
ing the flight of massed destruction; while the effectiveness of the 
theoretical defense was impressed by the simulation of dead and 
wounded among those going forward, undaunted and unheeding. As 
this panorama of unutterable klestruction visualized the horrors of 
modern conflict, there grew on me the sense of the failure of a civiliza- 
tion which can leave its problems to such cruel arbitrament. Surely 
no one in authority, with human attributes and a full appraisal of the 
patriotic loyalty of his countrymen, could ask the manhood of king- 
dom, empire, or republic to make such sacrifice until all reason had 
failed, until appeal to justice through understanding had been de- 
nied, until every effort of love and consideration for fellow men had 
been exhausted, until freedom itself and inviolate honor had been 
brutally threatened. 

I speak not as a pacifist fearing war, but as one who loves justice 
and hates Avar. I speak as one who believes the highest function of 
government is to give its citizens the security of peace, the opportunity 
to achieve, and the pursuit of happiness. 

The loftiest tribute we can bestow to-day — the heroically earned 
tribute — fashioned in deliberate conviction, out of unclouded 
thought, neither shadowed by remorse nor made vain by fancies, is 
the commitment of this Republic to an advancement never made 
before. If American achievement is a cherished pride at home, if 
our unselfishness among nations is all we wish it to be, and ours is a 
helpful example in the world, then let us give of our influence and 
strength, j^ea, of our aspirations and convictions, to put mankind on 
a little higher plane, exulting and exalting, with war's distressing 
and depressing tragedies barred from the stage of righteous civiliza- 
tion. 

There have been a thousand defenses justly and patriotically made; 
a thousand offenses which reason and righteousness ought to have 
stayed. Let us beseech all men to join us in seeking the rule under 
which reason and righteousness shall prevail. 



6 

Standing to-day on hallowed ground, conscious that all America 
has halted to share in the tribute of heart and mind and soul to this 
fellow American, and knowing that the world is noting this expres- 
sion of the Republic's mindfulness, it is fitting to say that his sacrifice, 
and that of the millions dead, shall not be in vain. There must be, 
there shall be, the commanding voice of a conscious civilization 
against armed warfare. 

As we return this poor clay to its mother soil, garlanded by love 
and covered with the decorations that only nations can bestow, I can 
sense the prayers of our people, of all peoples, that this Armistice Day 
shall mark the beginning of a new and lasting era of peace on earth, 
good will among men. Let me join in that prayer. 

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy king- 
dom come. Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this 
day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those 
who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but de- 
liver us from evil, for Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the 
glory, forever. Amen. 



9 



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